An Effective Expanded Graphite Coating on Polystyrene Bead for Improving Flame Retardancy

Although foamed plastic insulation is widely used in construction in the Korean market, it is vulnerable to fire. To improve the flame retardancy, the method of flame-retardant coating with the EG in water-soluble state on the surface of expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads has been widely used. However, polystyrene beads coated with a water-soluble flame retardant easily separate the coated flame retardant in manufacturing. In this study is devised a flame-retardant coating and two steps of coating process for adhering the flame-retardant coating film evenly to the surface of the polystyrene bead without exfoliation. It was analyzed whether a flame-retardant EPS (FR-EPS) with excellent flame retardancy could be manufactured using polystyrene beads coated in this way. Ten FR-EPS samples satisfied the HF-1 and V-0 levels in horizontal and vertical burning tests, respectively. The THR of eight FR-EPS samples for ten minutes did not exceed 8 MJ∙m⁻² and the maximum HRR did not exceed 200 kW∙m⁻² for more than ten consecutive seconds. FR-EPS passed the building material standard of semi-nonflammability in Korean regulations, in contrast to commercial EPS, which have not passed the semi-nonflammability standard. It was also analyzed how effective the designed coating is in this study, comparing it with composites that were planned to improve the flame resistance of polystyrene, as reported in the literature. Flame Retardancy Index (FRI) values of FR-EPS proved the “excellent” level and had higher values compared with other polystyrene composites. These results demonstrated that the coated EPS containing a water-soluble flame retardant manufactured from EG and two steps of application with the coating solution achieved fire safety standard regulations.